Input mechanisms for many electronic devices, including handheld computers such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), tend to be have either an actuated or non-actuated state. For example, electronic devices tend to use buttons that can be actuated with a button press.
Some electronic devices, such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants manufactured by the SONY CORP., utilize a jog dial. The jog dial is a bezel that is typically rotatable between a non-actuated state and an actuated state. The jog dial is relatively small, and tends to be partially embedded within the housing. In many devices, the jog dial can be rotated a small distance about a center axis. That distance is only a small portion of its overall circumference. In many instances, the number of input values that can be entered through use of a jog dial is relatively small. For example, rotating the jog dial may cause one input value to be entered. The position of the jog dial may be varied so that the number of inputs per second, where each input has the same value, may be varied from slow to fast depending on the position of the jog dial about its rotation.